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Multiple-Meaning Words

A multiple-meaning word is spelled and said the same way but means different things: a bat flies at night, and you hit a ball with a bat. Context is the only clue, which is why these words are such good reading practice.

Here are 124 multiple-meaning words from past ClueBy puzzles, each with a real example sentence for every meaning. Use them as a reference, or make a printable worksheet below.

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Students read each sentence and write the missing word. Every word appears in several sentences, each time with a different meaning.

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Multiple-Meaning Words

Name: ____________________Date: __________

Write the missing word in each sentence. Each word is used more than once, with a different meaning each time.

  1. Do you need a ________________ with that?
  2. This shop sells ________________ wines and cheeses.
  3. I had a ________________ with my boss today.
  4. It's not a deep ________________. It's just a scratch.
  5. How do you ________________ your surname?
  6. He asked the witch to reverse the ________________.
  7. Every pianist practices the C major ________________.
  8. Nobody expected a disaster on this ________________.
  9. We've had a long dry ________________ this summer.
  10. We ________________ up on opposing sides.
  11. The muddy ________________ descends to a valley.
  12. I got a ________________ for parking in the wrong place.
  13. It seems a cruel thing to ________________ a bird's wings.
  14. This looks like a gunshot ________________.
  15. The kitchen ________________ is next to the microwave.
  16. The girl drawing a picture in the first ________________ is my niece.
  17. I assure you, everything's ________________.
  18. He keeps ________________ of his days.
  19. He hasn't even shaken my ________________.
  20. How can I extract the audio from a video ________________?
  21. I got dealt a bad ________________.
  22. Hold the papers together with a ________________.
  23. This is my favorite ________________ on the album.
  24. We had to ________________ the boat across the lake.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com

Answer key

  1. hand — help
  2. fine — high quality
  3. row — a quarrel
  4. wound — an injury
  5. spell — letters
  6. spell — magic
  7. scale — in music
  8. scale — size or range
  9. spell — a short time
  10. wound — past of 'wind'
  11. track — a path
  12. fine — a penalty
  13. clip — to cut
  14. wound — an injury
  15. scale — for weighing
  16. row — a line
  17. fine — all right
  18. track — to keep track
  19. hand — part of the body
  20. clip — a video
  21. hand — in cards
  22. clip — for paper
  23. track — a song
  24. row — to paddle

Multiple-meaning words list

Tick up to 10 words to build a worksheet with just those words.

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Frequently asked questions

What are multiple-meaning words?

Words with the same spelling and pronunciation but more than one meaning, like bark (of a dog or of a tree) or bank (for money or of a river). You can only tell which meaning is meant from the rest of the sentence.

Are multiple-meaning words the same as homonyms?

Mostly, yes. Teachers often use "multiple-meaning words" and "homonyms" for the same idea. Homophones are different: they sound alike but are spelled differently, like flour and flower.

Are the worksheets free?

Yes. Make and print as many as you like for home or classroom use. Each sheet has its own link, so you can print the same one again.

Where do the words come from?

From past ClueBy puzzles, a daily game where you sort twelve sentences by their missing word. A new puzzle every day adds four more words to this list.

Sentences from ClueBy, Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR) and Common Voice (CC0). clueby.com